The invention relates to ice handling apparatus, and in particular to an improved ice handling apparatus which minimizes agglomeration and congealing and facilitates dispensing of particles of ice maintained in a storage bin.
When small particles of ice, such as ice in crushed, cracked, flaked or cubed form, are stored in bulk in a hopper, they tend to congeal into a solid mass and it becomes difficult if not impossible to dispense the same automatically and in an essentially free flowing condition. Moreover the ice, especially softer ices such as flake ice, may agglomerate to such an extent that cavitation will take place within the interior of the mass, leaving a lower dispensing area of the hopper devoid of ice even though the hopper is otherwise full.
Much effort has heretofore been expended to provide various kinds of knives and blades in a hopper for particulate ice to prevent the ice from congealing or agglomerating, whereby to break up the ice into discrete particles, render the same free flowing and maintain an adequate quantity of free flowing ice particles in the dispensing area. In one type of dispenser a rotating cutter equipped with knives or blades is supposed to slash its way through a stationary mass of small particles of ice so as to maintain them in discrete form. In another the ice is rotated as a mass in a circular hopper and the hopper is equipped with vertical and radial knives or blades to slash through the rotating mass. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,839, the latter type of device has been equipped with stationary blades of such character as to impart undulating or tremor-like movements to the ice both vertically and radially to maintain the ice as individual, free flowing particles.
Unfortunately, despite the abundance of various forms of knives and other chopping devices, the art has not yet provided a satisfactory solution to the congealing of ice in storage hoppers. In consequence of the weight of a relatively large mass of ice stored in a hopper, which may be on the order of fifty pounds or more, particles of ice in the lower portions of the hopper are often compacted by the overlying ice into a relatively solid mass which resists separation. Such agglomeration of ice particles greatly increases the problem of dispensing the ice, let alone dispensing the same in the form of discrete, free flowing particles.
In addition to agglomeration of ice within the hopper, a further problem to dispensing results from the particular positioning of the discharge opening in the hopper. In order to prevent melt water from being dispensed with ice, the bottom of the hopper usually has drain holes therein, and the dispensing opening is elevated slightly above the bottom. In consequence, a ridge is formed between the bottom of the hopper and the bottom of the dispensing opening over which ice must be moved during dispensing. The ridge significantly impedes dispensing of even free flowing particles of ice, and occasionally makes impossible dispensing of somewhat congealed lumps of ice.